In a major outbound acquisition, Lanco Infratech on Wednesday announced acquisition of Griffin Coal Mining Company in Australia in a bid to secure fuel for its future capacity addition plans.

In a major outbound acquisition, Lanco Infratech on Wednesday announced acquisition of Griffin Coal Mining Company in Australia in a bid to secure fuel for its future capacity addition plans.

Lanco has not disclosed the deal size, but Australian media has valued it at 850 million Australian dollars (Rs 3,800 crore).

This is the second buyout of an Australian coal mining firm by an Indian company after Adani Group bought Linc Energy’s Galilee coal tenement for $2.7 billion in August.

“The acquisition of Griffin Coal is an important component of our development strategy, providing increased fuel security for our current power generation assets and future power portfolio expansions,” said Suresh Kumar, CFO of Lanco Infratech. “This acquisition also presents an opportunity to Lanco to participate in the burgeoning natural resources trading market.”

Lanco’s capacity stands at 2,100 MW. It plans to have a total capacity of 15,000 MW by 2015.

Lanco Infratech completed the deal through its Australian subsidiary Lanco Resources Australia and concluded a binding agreement with Griffin Energy Group and Carpenter Mine Management Holdings.

The mine produces over 4 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of coal, which can be ramped up to over 15 mtpa in the near term. The company claims the mining tenements contain over 1.1 billion tonnes of joint ore reserves committee compliant thermal coal resources.

The share prices of Lanco jumped by 6.6% in the early trading before closing the day at Rs 61.3 with a gain of 0.5%.

CIL eyes mines in Indonesia, US

The world’s largest coal producer, Coal India Ltd (CIL) is in talks to buy coal mines from Indonesia’s Sinar Mas Group, and some of the assets of Massey Energy, the fourth-largest coal firm in the US. “Talks are narrowing down,” Coal India CMD Partha S Bhattacharyya said. CIL is also in advanced talks to buy 10% stake in the US-based Peabody Energy Corp’s assets in Australia.